Anyone time their hitters/slappers?

[Osric]

I'm going to do some time trials in the next couple of weeks. I've recorded times for home to first for regular hits and bunts (I don't have any slappers on my team), but I ran into a incident last week that has me thinking.

I have a girl who has always been a good hitter, but for some reason she has struggled this year. Only a handful of singles and doubles from a girl who used to be a threat to drive the ball on every at bat and more than a couple watched 3rd strikes. So a few games ago she comes up to me and asks if she can slap. I say I didn't know she was working from the left side. She says, no...from the right side. I ask to see what she means (thinking maybe she was planning on doing a show-bunt, pull back and hit). She shows me a running slap from the right side. I'm not thrilled with the idea, but she has been struggling and I think it might be a way for her to focus a little better, so I give her the green light. She gets up and does more of a running bunt than a slap...gets called out for hitting the ball outside of the batters box. But she beat the throw by several steps. She has tried it a couple more times, has been successful once, but has been seeing the ball better and has gotten her AVE up about .050 points in the past few games.

So, my question here isn't "to slap or not to slap". This particular girl is too much of a long ball threat for any future coach to really use her that way. But I'm more curious as to whether anyone has tried timing their batters running to first and comparing times on whether they "hit", "bunt", or "slap" regardless of which side of the plate they start from. Is a batter going to gain any significant time slapping from the right vs. bunting?

I'm going to do some time trials myself, but thought it would be interesting to compare.

 

[Dirtybird]

That would be called a drag bunt. It is very effective if the corners are not playing up and the ball is put down correctly. It is a very quick motion. My DDs hitting coaches which are former D1 players have been teaching both my DDs to lay down the drag bunt. One of my DDs is a power hitter but the coaches also use the drag bunt with her because they normally back up when she comes up to hit. She's quick on her feet so it works well too.

 

[SBFAMILY]

www.nfca.org/ - If you look up the camp times it will give you and idea of times . They measure from home to first doesn't matter if you are right or left.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Osric - when a historically "good hitter" hits the skids for an extended period (not just a slump), IMO, it usually is due to either a drastic change in eyesight or that the pitching has improved to the point where a hitter's flawed mechanics are exposed. Slapping from the right side is likely a short-term fix at best. And a "long ball" threat that doesn't make contact often isn't much of a threat so I wouldn't dismiss possibly switching to the left side, particularly if she has speed and if it will take a lot of time and effort to re-train the RH mechanics (as opposed to starting from scratch w/ no bad habits from the left).

And FWIW, IMO only lefties can drag bunt up the 1B line/to the right side; the RH batter equivalent is a push bunt.